Getting back to business

Indiana, despite being outscored 29-10 at the free-throw line at home, destroyed Michigan in Assembly Hall, 76-61, thanks to good defense, good offense (read 10-20 3pt. shooting), and really, the inability of Michigan being able to grow from being a decent team that kills bottom-feeders to a being a good team that competes. My pre-season unbelief in Tommy Amaker's ability seems vindicated.

Yoni Cohen notes that while Florida, North Carolina, Ohio State, Texas A&M, Wisconsin, or UCLA are currently the only teams that reside in nation's top 15 in defensive & offensive efficiency, Indiana, along with Clemson, are in both in the top 25 in both areas.

Cool.

I tweaked the HPER numbers in the last post to adjust Indiana's numbers so they were complete through 2/23. As I expected, even despite the horrible performance at Illinois, the Hoosier players dropped little in the rankings, if at all. Wilmont dropped a couple spots, AJ Ratliff dropped one spot, and the rest stayed the same. In fact, DJ White is still arguably every bit as effective as Greg Oden.

Armon Bassett's numbers look pretty bad, but they should rebound nicely after his good performance on Saturday. Rod Wilmont's numbers are lower than one might expect, partly because his best recent game (at UConn) isn't included. On the good side, AJ Ratliff is shooting a stellar 58.3% from beyond the arc in Big Ten games, rating a top 10 slot. Also, Mike White's performance lately is demanding more PT in IU's rotation. He had 6 points, 2 rebounds, 2 blocks, and a steal in a mere 8 minutes, all decisive in killing Michigan's last chance.

Also, I tweaked the links sidebar to reflect the categories of IU sites, IU bloggers, other Big Ten bloggers, RPI/ratings sites, College Ball bloggers, Official School athletic sites, as well as standings & recruiting links.